Libeaby step-chair



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTUS ELIAERS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LIBRARY STEP-CHAIR.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,151, dated October 25, 1853.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS ELrAnns, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Library Step-Chairs, and that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles of my said improvenients, by which my invention may be distinguished from others of a similar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

The figures of the accompanying plate of drawings represent my improvements.

Figure l is a front elevation representing the chair as closed for a seat and Fig. 2 a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the chair representing it as open and inverted forming a flight of live steps.

As these chairs have heretofore been co-nstructed, the hinge on which the two parts turned was formed between the fro-nt of the seat and the cross bar of the front legs, an arrangement which necessarily rendered the position of the occupant very uncomfortable as the chair could not be stuffed so as tocover these hinges, while, when opened, only four steps could be thus secured, which enabled one to reach but to a limited height.

By my improvements the hinge instead of being placed as above stated, is formed on an extension of the leg, thereby permitting the seat to be so stuffed as to make a handsome and comfortable chair, and when reversed, forming live steps, thus, by placing the hinge in the extension of the legs while the height of the seat remains as before, securing the additional height of one step, while the size of the chair remains the same.

a o lf-b b Z) in the drawings represents the outer framework of the two parts of the chair. c c are the hinges which connect the two parts of the chair, attached to the top of the front legsd, d and to the bottom of the side arms e, e. The two parts of the chair when folded together are fastened by a sliding bolt f f (retracted by a spiral spring g) which engages with a hasp or catch h attached to the other part of the chair. The steps z', z', z', z', z', when the chair is thus folded together, lit into each other under the body of the chair.

By simply applying the foot to the pro jectionZof the spring bolt, so as to disengage it from the hasp, the part a a a may be reversed, turning on the hinges c, c, into the posit-ion shown in Fig. 3 so as to form a flight of five steps, by which one can ascend to the upper shelves of a library; and by turning the part a ca a back again, the spring bolt f' f will engage with the hasp h and fasten the two parts together, forming a handsome and comfortable arm chair.

I-Iaving thus described my improvements I shall state my claim as follows:

What I claim as my invention is- A library step-chair or a chair which may be changed at pleasure into a flight of steps, in which the fold or hinge of the two parts is formed in the top or an extension of the front legs of the chair, thereby permitting the seat to be so stuffed as to form an ornamental and comfortable chair, and when opened to form a flight of five steps, as hereinabove set forth.

AUGUSTUS ELIAERS.

Witnesses:

JOSEPH GAVETT, EZRA LINCOLN. 

